


Feverish Five and caretaking Allison fic no. 243

by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden)



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Just sick Five and Allison looking after him, Number Five | The Boy Whump, Protective Allison Hargreeves, Sick Character, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:33:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28924395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kat_Of_Dresden/pseuds/ClaraCivry
Summary: Five is sick. Allison looks after him, sadly thinking about all the times when he had no one to look after him.That's it, just sickficness
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Allison Hargreeves
Comments: 3
Kudos: 104





	Feverish Five and caretaking Allison fic no. 243

She's never seen Five like this. She's seen him hurt before, of course, but never so ill, never so out of it. It's scary - scarier than him covered in blood, than the most manic version of him.

His breath is hitching, it's uneven, shallow at some points, way too labored, feeling strange and wrong. He's delirious, covered in a cold sweat, and has been muttering under his breath for hours, half crying, half moaning. It's so unlike him, it's something that he would never let himself do, much less let other people see.

"Don't... please... S'rry..."

Allison doesn't know what he's apologising about, but she wishes she could do something, she wishes she could ease his pain. Because there is so much pain in her brother's pale eyes and she doesn't feel like she can do anything about it. Which bothers her. She can always do something.

She's sitting on her brother's bedside, and just fretting. They didn't know he was even sick, any of them, until they found him passed out next to his bed, after having fallen, next to a little puddle of vomit. He has a pretty high fever and hasn't been lucid or fully awake since they found him, which worries Allison. Quite a lot.

Maybe they should take him to a hospital, but he always refuses so terribly - he all but disappeared the last time he heard her mention it, and feverishly begged her not to take him. She wonders why that is. Wonders if maybe there was some sort of hospital in the Commission, wonders if bad things happened to him there, if there were any treatments he didn’t really consent to, any illnesses that came with that awful job he did. Horrors seems to have happened to him everywhere he's been.

There's so much they don't know about him, so many parts of his life that are hidden, and maybe it's for the best, but... Alison wants to understand, to be there for him, to properly get all the aspects of who and how he is.

Like why he doesn't complain when he's feeling ill. Like why he often does things that hurt himself before anything else.

She wipes some sweat from that overheated brow, with gentleness, with care and soft lullaby in her lips. She shushes him as his back arches and he cries unwilling unconscious tears in his delirium. Grace has already told her that it wouldn't be safe to give him any more medication, but her heart is breaking.

He does seem to calm down a bit when he hears her, so she keeps talking, while she wonders just how many times he was sick on his own in that wasteland world, without any hopes of ever being comforted, maybe with the hopes that someone would find him, pick him up from the rubble and out of the ash and burning sun...

He was a child, like they were. But they had a roof over their head, they had food and they had each other, however their environment might be. They met people, they got jobs, they hated dad. But Five grew up probably always on the verge on malnutrition, always struggling to live, knowing himself so impossibly alone.

But no.

Thinking like that helps no one. Apocalypse was hell and it probably left Five with more scars that one single person should have, but he's here now, and she can look after him, and maybe it won't make up for all past sufferings, but it is better than the nothing he's probably used to.

She sings a little lullaby.

Five is crying in his sleep and her voice breaks a bit too, because although she knows Five must have hurt, he always looks so... whole and strong, to them. He appears out of nowhere and tells them he's done some incredible feat, which evidence points to yes, him being done so, and he keep his head high and his ideas clear.

But now... Now he's in pain, unable to be anything else but vulnerable, unable to construct that cold mean façade he uses with everyone. He's been stripped to what he is, someone who has been hurt too many times, someone who also hurts, someone who feels deeply.

They hadn't been terribly close as kids - she was part of the leaders gang with Diego and mostly Luther, while Five hung with the higher numbers, like Ben and Vanya. She liked to follow plans, made dad proud; he liked to break plans, make dad angry. But sometimes... well the boys could be a bit... slow, and too-simple-minded.

Five wasn't. Even when they were kids, Five was very smart, and Allison knew that if she made a fair point he would back her up, because he didn't care about their stupid orders or stupid fights: he cared about being right, about the "smart points" being heard. He was, with her, more than once the main voice of reason they had.

And she had missed him when he disappeared, not just because of that, but because he brought some sort of balance, and a voice that just wouldn't just believe their father's words, or eat up whatever bullshit was thrown. Five cared about all of them, and about the world, and about so much more than just dad and his rules.

And when he'd come back... There had been some parts of that strong, determined kid, but he'd also come back full of scars, and traumas, and much meaner because he simply had never learned to be kind, trapped in a the most unkind of possible worlds, with only his sibling's corpses for company.

And he'd been a kid, like he looked now, and he'd grown up there.

"But it'll be okay now, Five. You'll get to grow up again, in a better, kinder way, with people who love you, and who'll try to make your suffering a bit smaller, yes? I know you've always been a grand kind of guy, but maybe... After all that's happened, maybe you can take it slower for a bit, yes? Take smaller steps."

She's cleaning his face from sweat and tears, happy to see that his face doesn't seem to be in so much pain anymore.

He's still ill, and will probably be for a while, but now he doesn't have to fear for his life, or about losing his shelter about a storm of ash and fire taking away what little supplies he managed to gather, about the end of the world.

No, now he can go through this with a gentle voice guiding him, shushing him, warm hands brushing off his tears, making sure the pain wasn't bad, wishing that he gets better, the sooner the better.

"It will be better this time, Five, for you because you have us, and for us, because we have you." He seems to be calmer now. The fever is still bad, but he doesn't seem to be in that much pain. "Now I'm going to make you some nice broth, all right? I'll be back in to time."

And she is.

This time, they are staying together.

In sickness and in health.

**Author's Note:**

> Another thing that's mostly ????? but you know, since it's written
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> If you liked you know you want to comment!!


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